"
First Law" is a
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
short storyA short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books...
by
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
, first published in the October 1956 issue of
Fantastic UniverseFantastic Universe was a U.S. science fiction magazine which began publishing in the 1950s. It ran for 69 issues, from June 1953 to March 1960, under two different publishers. It was part of the explosion of science fiction magazine publishing in the 1950s in the United States, and was moderately...
magazine and later collected in
The Rest of the RobotsThe Rest of the Robots is a collection of eight short stories and two full-length novels by Isaac Asimov. The stories, centred on positronic robots, are all part of the Robot Series, most of which take place in the Foundation universe...
(1964) and
The Complete RobotThe Complete Robot is a collection of 31 science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov written between 1940 and 1976, which were previously collected in books I, Robot, The Rest of the Robots, and other anthologies...
(1982). The title of the story is a reference to the first of the
Three Laws of RoboticsIn science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction must obey...
.
The story is very short, only 3 pages in length, and takes the form of Mike Donovan's recount of an incident that occurred on
TitanTitan , or Saturn VI, is the largest moon of Saturn, the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere,
and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
, one of
SaturnSaturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn, along with Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, is classified as a gas giant...
's moons. He tells of a malfunctioning robot named Emma that escaped from the base and was later encountered by Donovan while he was lost during a storm.
"
First Law" is a
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
short storyA short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books...
by
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
, first published in the October 1956 issue of
Fantastic UniverseFantastic Universe was a U.S. science fiction magazine which began publishing in the 1950s. It ran for 69 issues, from June 1953 to March 1960, under two different publishers. It was part of the explosion of science fiction magazine publishing in the 1950s in the United States, and was moderately...
magazine and later collected in
The Rest of the RobotsThe Rest of the Robots is a collection of eight short stories and two full-length novels by Isaac Asimov. The stories, centred on positronic robots, are all part of the Robot Series, most of which take place in the Foundation universe...
(1964) and
The Complete RobotThe Complete Robot is a collection of 31 science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov written between 1940 and 1976, which were previously collected in books I, Robot, The Rest of the Robots, and other anthologies...
(1982). The title of the story is a reference to the first of the
Three Laws of RoboticsIn science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction must obey...
.
Plot
The story is very short, only 3 pages in length, and takes the form of Mike Donovan's recount of an incident that occurred on
TitanTitan , or Saturn VI, is the largest moon of Saturn, the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere,
and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
, one of
SaturnSaturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn, along with Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, is classified as a gas giant...
's moons. He tells of a malfunctioning robot named Emma that escaped from the base and was later encountered by Donovan while he was lost during a storm. While Donovan's life was in danger, Emma chose to protect its offspring, a small robot that it had built, instead of assisting him. This was a direct violation of the First Law of Robotics, which states that "a robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm". Apparently, maternal instincts in the robot took precedence over its programming, an example of the commonly encountered literary theme of
paternalismPaternalism refers usually to an attitude or a policy reminiscent of the hierarchic pattern of a family based on patriarchy, that is, there is a figurehead that makes decisions on behalf of others for their own good, even if this is contrary to their wishes.It is implied that the fatherly figure...
in Asimov's work.
While such direct disobedience of the First Law is not described in any other robot story by Asimov, he points out that the story is told by Donovan, who may be an
unreliable narratorIn fiction an unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility has been seriously compromised...
. Asimov admits that "I was being funny at the expense of my robots". In his book,
The Complete RobotThe Complete Robot is a collection of 31 science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov written between 1940 and 1976, which were previously collected in books I, Robot, The Rest of the Robots, and other anthologies...
, he also points out that this story is intended as a parody and is not to be taken seriously.